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AZ OOR

Taal, performance, Literair, Educatie, Ecologie, Diaspora, Dekolonisatie, Artistiek onderzoek

AZ OOR is a visual artist, storyteller and poet working at the intersection of fiction, history and speculative futures. A self-engaged Amazigh Futurist, AZ OOR engages the entangled relations between political imaginaries, land and Indigeneity from the Maghreb (North Africa as a site of participation in the World). Through oral storytelling, archival material and scenographic interventions they investigate the tension between prophecy and history, examining how (re)imagined and oneiric realms can disrupt political orders. A central concern in AZ OOR’s work is to examine the ideologies of Progress and Development within the Developmentocene, a colonial epoch that accelerates sentient life and transforms it into raw matter. Their artistic vocabulary alternates between quasi-theatrical forms, fragmented texts and scenographic vocality, articulating an Amazigh future that has not yet happened and a nostalgia for something that did not exist. This exploration inhabits a “Barzakh,” an in-between space that frustrates conventional categories of being and non-being, inside and outside. AZ OOR’s Amazigh Futurism rejects the linear logic of conventional Futurism, proposing an alternative rooted in the excavation of ancestrality. This approach not only proposes alternate realities, but seeks to “ghost” futuristic plateaus by provoking black holes of antimatter, a gesture toward opacity and the refusal of totalizing narratives. AZ OOR has exhibited, performed, and lectured internationally at venues such as Drawing Room UK, MMVI of Modern & Contemporary Art, Le18, Crac Occitanie, and Kunsthalle Mulhouse, Chapter Arts Center. They have also participated in international artist-in-residency programs including the Jan Van Eyck Academie, Moussem Nomadic Arts Center, Matadero Madrid, and Mothership in Tangier, Etc

Hmou Ozaghar, A Changeling’s tale, A Video-performance, Vhs, video Mixer, no-input sound mixer, 2024
Hmou Ozaghar, A Changeling’s tale, A Video-performance, Vhs, video Mixer, no-input sound mixer, 2024 - Before Modernity began providing magical solutions to ancestral lands, offering miracles and fulfilling dreams, one of the preferred tactics of Moderns was to abduct village children for Education, to change them, for the development mission. This changeling child becomes the new subject while the other child is taken to worlds with no return. Hmou Ozaghar is a Counterpoint re-mise-en-scène and an archival dérive into La Fugue de Mahmoud (Mahmoud’s Escape, 1955), a propaganda movie promoting the colonial miracle of “development”. The story unfolds from the perspective of a French teacher recounting the journey of a gifted child from Timoulay, a rural Moroccan village. Mahmoud, living simply in a palm grove, dreams of becoming a mechanic and eventually escapes to Casablanca. The film was produced to illustrate the first stages of Marshall Plan policies, which also funded this production.
The Flute Player/Communication Theory, Installation view, The Parable of The Goatherd, 2024.
The Flute Player/Communication Theory, Installation view, The Parable of The Goatherd, 2024. - AGDAL a géographie d’écart, a matrix for hearing the subjectivity and language of another species, wind whisperer, Humanimal, Animal telepaths, shifters… AT Moussem Nomadic Arts Center, Brussels. 2024. The Parable of the Goatherd, Toward a Natural History of Developement a bestiary The Parable of the Goatherd is poetical and material research into Amazigh animalistic tropism and zoopoetics, a return to the side of the animal, through the goatherd as mediator, space-crafter, the living-with-other-species space. We meet a proto-Goatherd, an archetype within the Amazigh imaginary, the goatherd as poet and storyteller, a flute player, a tuner of winds, of communication with the non-human
Scenic elements for the Fable of the Agronauts presented at Jan Van Eyck Academy, 2023
Scenic elements for the Fable of the Agronauts presented at Jan Van Eyck Academy, 2023 - The Fable of the Agronauts is a durational performance and immersive installation blending storytelling, material research, and ecopoiesis as a metaphor for displacement and ecological repair. Rooted in Amazigh Futurism, the project subverts colonial myths of isolated indigenous communities by reimagining them as proto-nomadic, traversing geographies and space-time to reclaim lost knowledge of iron, language, and the gut. Through four storytelling circles - The Lock and the Barbary Fig, The Arachnidian River, The Stinging Tongues and Iron Birds, and The Fable of the Agronauts (Act II )- the installation explores themes of ecological collapse, resilience, and speculative futures, bridging myth and materiality..
Aghmat, On the Invention of Geometry, Installation View, Chapter Arts Center, Cardif, Wales.
Aghmat, On the Invention of Geometry, Installation View, Chapter Arts Center, Cardif, Wales 2022. - “The series of drawings on fabric is a formal reflection inspired, among others, by the work of rural sociologist Paul Pascon, which considers how the introduction of colonial geometries of extravism and the 'modernization' of water management, altered socio-cultural, temporal and agri-cultural practices in the artist's hometown. Aghmat, now a small town next to Marrakech (Morocco), was a prominent Amazigh crossroad in the 9th Century. Its name, 'the dye', owed to Aghmat's agricultural activity within the arid region of El Haouz. On fabrics dyed with locally grown pomegranate, eucalyptus, oak and walnut tree, AZ OOR studies two bodies of water creating a palimpsest of lines and matters which complicates the binary distinction between modernity and tradition, while writing an ode to the modes of belonging that these two interwoven water infrastructures encapsulate.”
Oreilles Nues (Naked Ears), Qalqalah: More Than One Langage, 2020.
Oreilles Nues (Naked Ears), Qalqalah: More Than One Langage, 2020. - Copper, leather. dimensions : variable. Oreilles nues is delving into the concepts of listening, capture, and opacity. Inspired by acoustic experiments with military applications, the sculpture examines the relationship between the listener and the surrounding space. It places the viewer in a literal position of listening, where perception takes center stage, transforming the exhibition space into a site of resonance and heightened sensitivity. Through this approach, the sculpture invites reflection on the dynamics of language, translation, and transmission, while poetically evoking a latent desire for power and control often inherent in these processes. The work, though outwardly silent, resonates as a call for a less explicit form of interaction, one that prioritizes sensory experience and personal interpretation.
ⴰⵏⵙⴰ ⵏ ⴳⵔⴰⵜⵏⵖ (On social space), Amazigh Spacecraft Series, 2020.
For John or ⴰⵏⵙⴰ ⵏ ⴳⵔⴰⵜⵏⵖ (On social space), Amazigh Spacecraft Series, 2020. - Malhoun 2.0, Fenduq, Marrakech, 2020. (Recycled Aluminum dimensions : variable) This work is part of a series within my research project on “the institution of listening.” This artistic research project aims to explore the connections between the phenomena of the voice, orality, and the physicality of architecture, urbanism, or the political management of communication. “For John” was produced as part of a collective exhibition: Malhoun 2.0, initiated by Fenduq following a series of meetings between artisans, artists, writers, and thinkers in Marrakech. “For John” was initially conceived as an elliptical visual form that seeks to mend a historical-colonial divide between the school of fine arts and the school of Islamic arts. Subsequently, it evolved into a “sound structure,” imagining what a space for communication-speech and listening-might look like. It also indirectly references the social space of resonance, such as the Halqa, the public space. The dimensions of the sculpture are based on a proxemic study, an approach to material space derived from the field of anthropology. This study examined the physical distance established between people in interaction, measured haptically by an outstretched hand.
The Third Body, Sculptures, Drawing, Video, Installation, BARZAJ, Matadero Madrid 2018.
The Third Body, Sculptures, Drawing, Video, Installation, BARZAJ, Matadero Madrid 2018. - The third body explores the metamorphosis of the oriental body* under Western Gaze. It examines the hegemonic gaze of the other through orientalism and issues of hyper-sexualization and industrialization that are jeopardizing the identity of the body as it is defined by the culture that produces and conditions it. The body as an incessant dynamic of deterritorialization. The third body explores how the hybrid body is shaped in the context of war, violence, immigration, and hyperglobalization. Sifting through visual archives; such as footage released from Abu Ghraib and movies produced by the porn industry to be consumed largely, passing by critical moments like the Arab Spring, the crisis in Syria, or events like Real Madrid winning the Champions League for the 13th time; this work aims to research how the body has been bounded, violated, bombed, decapitated, destroyed, regenerated, plastified, exhibited, veiled, unveiled, colonized, double-colonized, stereotyped, displaced, burned, fetishized, pathologized, commodified, racialized, genderified, oppressed. *The third body is based on the term of third space developed by postcolonial studies. * the oriental body: in reference to “Le corps oriental” an essay by Abdelkebir Khatibi (1938-2009) where he analyzes the social, cultural and aesthetical aspects of the anthropological body.
TABLA from The Third Body, Sculptures, Drawing, Video, Installation, BARZAJ, Matadero Madrid 2018.
TABLA from The Third Body, Sculptures, Drawing, Video, Installation, BARZAJ, Matadero Madrid 2018. - The third body explores the metamorphosis of the oriental body* under Western Gaze. It examines the hegemonic gaze of the other through orientalism and issues of hyper-sexualization and industrialization that are jeopardizing the identity of the body as it is defined by the culture that produces and conditions it. The body as an incessant dynamic of deterritorialization. The third body explores how the hybrid body is shaped in the context of war, violence, immigration, and hyperglobalization. Sifting through visual archives; such as footage released from Abu Ghraib and movies produced by the porn industry to be consumed largely, passing by critical moments like the Arab Spring, the crisis in Syria, or events like Real Madrid winning the Champions League for the 13th time; this work aims to research how the body has been bounded, violated, bombed, decapitated, destroyed, regenerated, plastified, exhibited, veiled, unveiled, colonized, double-colonized, stereotyped, displaced, burned, fetishized, pathologized, commodified, racialized, genderified, oppressed. *The third body is based on the term of third space developed by postcolonial studies. * the oriental body: in reference to “Le corps oriental” an essay by Abdelkebir Khatibi (1938-2009) where he analyzes the social, cultural and aesthetical aspects of the anthropological body.

Storytelling Circles: Rivers of Thirst

Datum:
Locatie: Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, Lange Nieuwstraat 7, 3512 PA Utrecht

AZ OOR presenteert Issaffen n Irifi, een vierdaags programma over Amazigh futurisme, strijd en verbeelding. Bij zonsondergang ontvouwen zich verhalen langs waterstromen en dorst, verteld door vijf personages. Door poëzie, techniek en herinnering weeft AZ OOR verbanden tussen verleden en toekomst, verzet en landschap. Issaffen n Irifi maakt deel uit van The Fable of the Agronauts, een space-fiction over inheemse overleving.

https://casco.art/nl/activity/storytelling-circles-rivers-of-thirst-door-az-oor/

AL FALAK AL MAJDOUB (The Entranced Orbit)

Datum:
Locatie: Pretorialaan 141, 3072 EL Rotterdam
In samenwerking met: Gemaal Op Zuid

𝘈𝘭 𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘬 𝘈𝘭 𝘔𝘢𝘫𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘣 is a space-fiction exploring the theology of electricity, framing Modernity itself as a theology of electricity, where the magic realm is reified into an economic and capitalist infrastructure of power. The work travels the digital barzakh [liminal realm], where cyber-utopias and colonial infrastructures collide. The work unfolds as a tripartite gesture: a visual production (Wall Painting), a sound installation (Electrical Wanderers), and a theory-fiction.

Sensing the Ways: On Touch, Story, Movement, and Song

Datum:
Locatie: Lange Nieuwstraat 7, 3512 PA Utrecht
In samenwerking met: Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons

Casco Art Institute presenteert het voorjaarsprogramma Sensing the Ways, met kunst van Teresa Borasino, AZ OOR, Serena Lee en Kristiina Koskentola. De tentoonstelling onderzoekt belichaamde kennis via aanraking, verhalen, beweging en zang. Kunstenaars reflecteren op inheemse en alternatieve epistemologieën. Projecten omvatten o.a. de verdwijnende gletsjer Quelccaya, Amazigh-verzet, taijiquan en sjamanistische kennis. Dit initiatief is onderdeel van Changing the Fabric of the Night Sky.

https://casco.art/nl/activity/sensing-the-ways-on-touch-story-movement-and-song/

Hmou Ozaghar, A Changeling tale

Datum:
Locatie: Boomgaardsstraat 71, 3012 XA
In samenwerking met: WORM

Hmou Ozaghar, A Changeling tale. Film Performance 30’
Hmou Ozaghar is a Counterpoint re-mise-en-scène and an archival dérive into La Fugue de Mahmoud (Mahmoud’s Escape, 1955), a propaganda movie promoting the colonial miracle of “development”. The story unfolds from the perspective of a French teacher recounting the journey of a gifted child from Timoulay, a rural Moroccan village. Mahmoud, living simply in a palm grove, dreams of becoming a mechanic and eventually escapes to Casablanca.

https://www.az-oor.com/p/hmou-ozaghar-changeling-tale.html
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